Lock



Feb. 19, 1935. A. J. PACEWICK 1,991,935

LOCK

Filed May 4, 1933 2&

V 4 14/ --'8 jfzdezz oz x fllerdf z zcea/r Patented Feb. 19, 1935 UNITED STATES PATEN -o FFICE 11 Claims.

This invention relates to that general class of devices known as locks, and more particularly to a novel and improved construction of lock mechanism in which no key is employed, but which may be operated substantially as'a permutation lock.

An object of this invention is to provide a lock mechanism of the character described which structure may be made without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of my invention, I have illustrated in the accompanying drawing preferred embodiments thereof, from an inspection of which when considered in connection with the following description, my invention, its mode of construction, assembly and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and appreci ated.

Referring to the drawing in which the samecharacters of reference are employed to indicate corresponding or similar'parts throughout the several figures of the drawing:

Figure l cordance with the principles of my invention,

some ofv the parts thereof being shown in elevation;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the said lock mechanism taken at right angles to the view shown in Fig. l; V.

Fig. 3 is an elevational view of the outside face plate of the lock mechanism;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of my improved device by means of which the said lock may be actuated to permit the same to be moved to open position; I

Fig. 5 is an end elevational view of the device shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is an elevational view of a detail construction'of one of the stops employed with the device shown in Fig. 4;

' Fig. 7 is a similar view showing a modifiedform of stop; 1 Fig. 8 is a view taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 7 showing the one way hingedconnection of one of the stop elements. Referring to the drawing more particularly by characters of reference, the, reference 10 generally designates my improved lock mechanism which comprises a casing 11 within which the said lock mechanism is disposed, said casing being provided with a face plate 14 shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

Disposed within the casing 11 arecompactly arranged the elements which go to make up my improved lock mechanism, said elements consisting of a shaft 16 which is journaled within the side walls of the casing, one end of said shaft extending beyond one wall of said casing, and is. provided a knob 19, carrying a pointer 20 for a purpose to be presently more fully described.

Upon the shaft 16 are mounted three disks 21, 22 and 23 of any suitable material, such, for examp1e,fas brass or the like. The disk 21 is securely fastened to the shaft by means of the pin 24 so as to rotate therewith. The disks 22' and 23 are loosely mounted on the shaft, but are provided with pins 25 and 26, respectively, and cutouts 27 and 28, respectively, on their undersides, said pins 25 and 26 being adapted for engagement with pins 29 and 30, respectively, provided'on the'shaft 16. Thus the arrangement is such that rotation of the shaft .16 through the medium of the knob 19 will cause a rotation of the disk 21 and also a rotation of the disk 22 whenever the pin 29 secured to said shaft comes into engagement with the pin 25 carried with said disk; is a longitudinal sectional view. through a lock mechanism constructed in ac-.

When there is no such engagement between the last mentioned pins, the rotation of the shaft 16 will not effect or cause any movement of the disk 22. Similarly the rotation of the disk 23 will not be possible unless and until the pin 30 comes into contact with the pin 26 provided on said disk 23. By reason of this arrangement'it will be apparent that by disposing the pins 25 and 26in a certain relation to each other when the said disks 21,22 and 23 are in assembled position, the rotation of the shaft 16 will cause the movement of the said disks to bring the same to a certain desired position with respect to. each other.

The disks 21, 22 and 23 are separated from each other by means of suitable plates31 and 32, said I plates having their forward ends bent at right angles as shown at 33 and 34, respectively. In"

order to prevent any movement of the disks 22 and 23 other than that imparted to it by means of the shaft 16, there is provided a pair of friction members 35 for each of said disks 22 and 23, said members being formed as shown in Fig. 1, and have their rear ends secured to each other by means of the spiral spring 36 and their forward free ends 37 being disposed in vertical slots provided therefor in the depending portions 33 and 34 of the plate members 31 and 32. These members 35 will, therefore, act as a brake for preventing any movement of the disks with which they are associated unless the movement is caused by the engagement of the pin provided on the shaft 16 with the corresponding pin provided onsaid disks.

Each of the disks 21, 22 and 23 are provided with the radial slots 38, said slot extending from the extreme outer edge of the disk to a point adjacent the central opening therein through which the shaft 16 extends. When the slots 38 of the three disks 21, 22 and 23 are in alignment with each other then the lock mechanism will be in such position as to permit the opening of the lock.

However, when one of said disks is so disposed as to bring its slot 38 out of alignment with the slots of the other disks, it will be impossible to actuate the lock mechanism to open position. The purpose, therefore, of the shaft 16 is to actuate the same so as to move the three disks to a position where their respective slots 38 will be in alignment with each other for permitting the operation of the lock mechanism to move the same to an open position.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the casing is provided with a pivoted latch 39, which latch is pivoted as shown at 40, and may be swung about its pivot to move the same into and out of looking position. As viewed in Fig. 1, when said member 39 is swung about its pivot to the left, it will be moved to open position, and when swung to the position shown in said figure, it will be in locked position. A suitable cutout 41 is provided in the casing 11 for permitting the movement of the latch 39 to its open position.

In order to actuate this latch 39 there is provided a link 42, one end of which is connected, as shown at 43, to the latch member 39 at a point above the pivot 40 thereof and the other end of which is connected as shown at 44 to a rod 45, to which rod is secured a second rod 46, and said rod 45 being also secured to a forked member 47, the lower end of which forked member is rigidly secured to a shaft 48, whereby the actuation of said shaft will rotate the forked member 47 causing a pull on the link 42 for actuating the latch member 39.

The shaft 48 is journaled within the side walls of the casing 11 and has the end extending beyond the casing and provided with a knob 51 for facilitating the actuation of the same.

The rod 46 extends through a member 52 within which it is guided, and has secured to the free end thereof the plate member 53, which plate member is disposed in position to be received within the slots 38 of the disks 21, 22 and 23 when the latter are so disposed as to bring said slots into proper alignment with each other. On the other hand, when said slots 38 are not in alignment with each other it will be impossible to move said shaft 48 for the purpose of actuating the latch member 39.

In order to operate the shaft 16 to move the same to bring the disks 21, 22 and 23 into proper alignment with each other for permitting the actuation of the latch member 39 to move the same to open position, I have provided a novel and improved device which cooperates with the member 20 provided on the shaft 16. As shown in Fig. 3 of the drawing, there is provided on the face plate 14 three pins arranged around the knob 19, the upper of said pins being designated by the reference character 54 and the other of said pins being designated by the reference characters 55 and 56. These pins are arranged on the circumference of a circle and the pin 54 is of somewhat larger diameter than the others for a purpose to be presently more fully described.

Adapted for disposition on said face plate 14 and surrounding said knob 19 is a ring member 57, said member being provided with a plurality of offset feet 58, each of which has an opening 59 extending therethrough, which openings are adapted to receive therein the pins 54, 55 and 56, respectively, for holding the member 5'7 in proper position on the face plate 14. The upper of said feet 58 is provided with a larger central opening than the others and is adapted for dis position above the pin 54.

The member 57 is provided intermediate the feet 58 with a plurality of teeth 60, and, as shown in Fig. 4, said member is divided by means of the feet 58 into three sectors. Upon each of said sectors is adapted to be disposed a stop member which is provided with means for disposition on said ring member between any pair of teeth 60. Thus as shown in Fig. 6, there is illustrated a stop member 61 which is of substantially rectangular shape and which embraces the ring 5'7, on which ring it is heldby means of a spring 62, which spring is adapted for holding said member 61 in any adjusted position on the sector, but which will permit the movement of the same outwardly away from the center of the ring member for disengagement between the teeth, whereby the said stop member may be moved for disposition between any pair of teeth in the respective sector upon which it is mounted.

The stop member 61 is provided with a depend-,

tion illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, which construc-.

tion comprises a stop member similar to the member 61, as shown at 64 in Fig. 'I, said member 64, however, having the depending portion 65 thereof hinged as shown at 66,- in such a manner that the said depending portion will permit movement past the same in one direction, but

will prevent such movement in the reverse direction. Said depending portions 63 and 65 when their respective stop members are in operative position on the ring will be engaged by the arm 20 on the shaft 16 when the latter is rotated. The disposition of said stops 61 and 64 will be such as to regulate the rotation of the knob 19, and when properly disposed, the rotation of the knob 19 will engage first the stop in one sector and then in the opposite direction untilit engages the stop in the third sector and then back again until it engages the stop in the second sector. This will bring about the proper alignment of the disks 21, 22 and 23 to permit the actuation of the knob 51 to move the latch member 39 out of locked position.

. Thus in operating the lock mechanism here tofore described, the ring member with. its stops 61 and 64 disposed thereon in their proper position is applied to the face plate 14 with the pins 54, 55 and 56 received in the openings 59 of the feet 58. The knob 19 is then turned so as to bring the arm 20 to the position shown in Fig. 2.

This knob is then rotated to the right until it engages with the stop 63 disposed on the sector 67. The knob 19 is then rotated in the opposite direction until it engages the stop 63 disposed on the sector 68, the stop 65 on the intermediate sector 69 permitting the movement of the arm past the samewhen'rotated in an anti-clockwise direction. The knob 19 is then turned back in a clockwise direction until it engages the stop 65 on the sector 69. When the arm 20 has been brought to this position, the disks 21, 22 and 23 will then be in their proper alignment for permitting the actuation of the knob 51 to swing the latch member 39 to its open position. The ring member '7 may now be removed and the door opened. A movement of the knob 19 in either direction will again bring the disks 21, 22 and 23 out of alignment with each other thereby again moving the latch member 39 to its locking position in which position it will be held until the further actuation of the knob 19 in co-operation with the ring member 5'7 in the manner just explained.

From the above it will be seen that a large number of permutations may be obtained by providing different positions for the stop members 61 and 64 on their respective sectors. Each individual lock, however, will have a definite position for each stop member, which position may be readily remembered by the owner of the particular look by counting the number of teeth from any one foot 58 to the position where the stop 61 should be locked in its respective sector.

In actual operation, the owner of the lock may purposely displace the stop 61, so that when an unauthorized person should obtain possession of the ring member 57 he will not be able to use the same for the purpose of actuating the particular lock as he will not know the exact position of the stop member 61 on said ring member. These stops may be left in inoperative position until just prior to the disposition of the ring on the face plate 14 for the operation of the look, at which time the operator or rightful owner of the lock may move the said stops to their proper positions in their respective sectors. This feature makes for a construction which will be absolute- 1y safe as no one who is unauthorized will be able to operate the locking mechanism.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a permutation lock, a rotatable shaft and means co-operating with said rotatable shaft for setting up the combination of the lock, said means including a removable ring member having a plurality of adjustable stops provided thereon at predetermined positions, said stops being so disposed that said rotatable shaft may be brought into successive contact therewith.

2. In a permutation lock, the combination of a rotatable shaft, an arm carried by said shaft, and a dial having a plurality of adjustable stops surrounding said shaft and disposed in position for limiting the rotary movement of said shaft, whereby when said shaft is rotated it engages first one of said stops and then successively the other of said stops, the said shaft may be effective for actuating a plurality of disks associated therewith, each of which disks is provided with a radial slot for bringing said disks to a predetermined position of adjustment for aligning the slots therein.

3. In a permutation lock, the combination of a dial having a plurality of teeth provided therein, adjustable stops adapted for detachable engagement between any pair of said teeth, a rotatable shaft having an arm associated there with adapted for rotation relative to said dial, said stops being efiective for limiting the rotation of said shaft, a plurality of disks associated with said shaft, eachof which is providedwith a radial slot, .said disks being, adapted for movement relative to each other through the medium of the shaft, said stops being so disposed on said dial that the rotation of said shaft when brought into successive contact with said stops will bring about a predetermined position of adjustment for aligning the slots in said disks.

4. In a permutation lock, a rotatableshaft, a pointer associated with said shaft, a removable dial surrounding said shaft and having circumferentially arranged stops for co-operating with said pointer for setting up the combination of the lock.

5. In a permutation lock, the combination with a removable dial, of indicating means movable relatively to said dial, a series of stops located on said dial and disposed in the path of travel of said indicating means for limiting the movement thereof, said stops and indicating means cooperating to set up the combination of the lock.

6. In a permutation look, a rotatable shaft, a removable dial adapted to surround said shaft, indicating means carried by said shaft and rotatable therewith, a plurality of stops located on said dial and disposed in the path of travel of said indicating means whereby said indicating means may be brought into successive contact with said stops, said stops and indicating means co-operating for setting up the combination of the lock.

'7. In a permutation lock, a rotatable shaft, indicating means carried by said shaft for rotation therewith, a removable dial adapted when in operativeposition to surround said shaft and its associated indicating means, said dial being provided with a plurality of crcumferentially arranged stops disposed in the path of travel of said indicating means whereby said indicating means may be brought into successive contact with each of said stops, said stops and indicating means being arranged so as to bring about the setting up of the combination of the lock.

8. In a permutation look, a rotatable controlling member, indicating means associated with said member and adapted for rotation therewith, a removable dial surrounding said controlling member and its associated indicating means, a plurality of stops arranged on said dial and disposed in position when said dial is in opera.- tive relation with said controlling member to be in the path of travel in said indicating means, whereby said indicating means may be brought into successive contact with said stops, and means provided on said dial for adjustably supporting said stops in a plurality of positions thereon, said stops and indicating mean co-operating with each other for setting up the combination of the lock.

9. In a permutation look, a rotatable shaft, a pointer secured to said shaft, a removable ring member surrounding said shaft and pointer, said ring member having circumferentially arranged stops disposed in position for limiting the rotary movement of said pointer, at least one of said stops permitting movement of the pointer past the same in one direction only, said stops and pointer co-operating with each other for setting up the combination of the lock.

10. In a permutation lock, the combination with a removable dial, of indicating means movable relative to said dial, a plurality of adjustable stops located on said dial and disposed in the path of travel of said indicating means for limiting the movement thereof, at least one of said stops being arranged so as to permit the movement of said indicating means past the same when'rotating in one direction but preventing said indicating means to travel past said stop 

